Software Patents in Europe (Was:Re: Microsoft prohibits GPLed wor via licensing of CIFS standards)

[Georg Jakob]

Hi all,

For the german-speaking readers among you: I'd like to point you to some 
very good article by kyrah on software patents in Europe. 

http://www.fsf.or.at/artikel/softwarepatente.html

It has already been pointed out that theoretically, sw patents are illegal in 
Europe, but that they're granted nevertheless. Now kyrah did some absolutely 
great research which shows how absurd sw patents really are. This might not be 
new to most of you, but the article is a very important tool nevertheless - it 
provides exactly the kind of information clueless politicians etc. need to 
maybe reevaluate their efforts of legalizing SW Patents. So please spread 
it, and maybe help provide translations!


-- 
kindest regards,         jack at unix.sbg.ac.at
Georg Jakob              http://www.users.sbg.ac.at/~jack
"After explaining the situation to the machine clearly with appropriate
 use of a screwdriver and cleaning up I got the update to behave." (A. Cox)